The present invention generally relates to a bed for the sick or wounded patient, and more particularly to a sick or wounded patient bed having a separable frame and a moving/lifting apparatus for the separable frame, part of which bed is movable while keeping the sick or wounded patient rested thereon, and can separate from the bed for easy transfer of the sick or wounded patient to any other associated equipment such as a wheelchair bench, a toilet stool or a bathtub which is equipped separately.
Patients have heretofore been transferred from a carriage to a bed or an operating table by nurses or other attendants. An apparatus capable of achieving such a transfer of patents without directly touching the patients is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-41993 (Patent No. 913449).
The apparatus disclosed in the above publication is a patient carriage comprising a carriage which includes a frame body B having a number of bar-shaped cushions extending horizontally parallel to each other with certain intervals therebetween, and a frame body A having bar-shaped cushions in the form of comb teeth parallel to each other with certain intervals therebetween which are supported by support frames assembled in a disassemblable manner, the frame body A being laid on the carriage. The bar-shaped cushions of the frame body A are fitted into respective gaps between the bar-shaped cushions of the frame body B to form a flat bed surface. The frame body A and the frame body B are interconnected by a rotatable arm such that when the arm is rotated, the frame body A is moved away from the frame body upwardly. By further moving the frame body A transversely, a patient can be transferred to another bed or the like.
Another similar apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-47636 (Patent No. 920511). This apparatus is fundamentally based on the same concept as that disclosed in the above-cited Japanese Patent Publication No. 42-41993. More specifically, the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-47636 comprises a bed main frame having bar-shaped cushions arranged with certain intervals therebetween and a lift frame having bar-shaped cushions arranged in alternate relation to the bar-shaped cushions of the main frame. The bar-shaped cushions of the lift frame are movable vertically through respective gaps between the bar-shaped cushions of the main frame. The apparatus is used in combination with a stretcher having a number of support members in respective positions corresponding to the bar-shaped cushions of the lift frame. Thus, the apparatus intends to transfer a patient from a stretcher to a bed or vice versa.
The above known inventions disclose for the first time the techniques that different frames have bar-shaped cushions in the form of comb teeth arranged in alternate relation and one of the frames is movable through the other frame. These techniques intend to transfer a patient between a carriage and a bed or an operating table, or to transfer a patient between a bed and a stretcher with the aid of nurses and other persons engaged in medical care for the purposes of surgical operations and the like. However, any apparatus enabling a patient to get up from a lying posture of his or her own will and to move from a bed to a wheelchair, a toilet stool or a bathtub by oneself or with the minimum aid of other persons is not yet proposed as far as the inventors are accessible.